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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726782">A divergence in the road</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bacner/pseuds/Bacner'>Bacner</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto, Naruto - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Maybe some Romance, Mountains, Other Animals - Freeform, Snakes, Some Humor, mosquitoes, proximity, summons contracts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:07:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,787</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726782</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bacner/pseuds/Bacner</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasuke, Karin, and the rest of Orochimaru's leftovers have to stay overnight in a mountain shelter. Things diverge from there.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Uchiha Sasuke &amp; Karen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A divergence in the road</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Karin was quite sure: they were lost. Sasuke-kun’s plan got derailed.</p>
<p>Normally, this would be a bad thing, and the fact that in this case ‘derailment’ meant that they were running late to interrupt the Kage Conference, and were lost in the mountains instead. Very disappointing. The fact that they were stuck in some obscure, dark corner of wild mountains – even worse. There was no one in sight, there was nothing in sight, just more and more stony mountains around him or her - and it was getting late. As in nighttime late, and given the time of the year, this meant that they were really lost.</p>
<p>“It’s getting late,” Juugo rumbled. “And that means mosquitoes. Man, but do I hate mosquitoes!”</p>
<p>Karin shot the biggest member of their team an irritated glance, but nothing more – after all, she was riding on Sasuke-kun’s back, while Juugo was carrying Suigetsu around, so their situations was different.</p>
<p>“The big lump got a point, Sasuke-kun,” she said brightly, (still enjoying her situation). “You’ve been carrying me since early afternoon; he was carrying Suigetsu almost as much, maybe we should stop for the night-?”</p>
<p>Abruptly, (and unexpectedly, to be honest), ‘Sasuke-kun’ did just that: he completed a turn on the mountain path and stopped. Juugo, who was following his lead, also stopped… next to him.</p>
<p>“Hey, I didn’t smash into you! I always smashed into Karin and Suigetsu!” he rumbled, sur-prised. </p>
<p>“…You’re carrying Suigetsu at the moment,” Sasuke commented quietly; Juugo heard him just fine, but became only more confused instead. </p>
<p>“…Why’d we stop?” he rumbled, (still carrying Suigetsu. Then again, Karin was still carried her-self, so she was not about to start anything about that). <br/>Sasuke looked at him. </p>
<p>“…Yes, um, it was my idea… I mean I did say that it was getting late and that I hated mosqui-toes, but that’s not enough to stop,” Juugo mumbled. “Mountain paths are all alike, one portion is the same as another-“</p>
<p>“No, not always,” Sasuke said softly, as he pointed at the mountainside for real. “See?”</p>
<p>Karin looked. Juugo looked. Even Suigetsu looked – maybe. There, barely visible in the deepening evening, stood not a hovel, but something among those lines, a rough house, made out of stone, clay, and an occasional branch; not very inviting, but it did have a roof and four walls, complete with roughly hewn windows and a doorway.</p>
<p>“There’s no fire, no smoke,” Juugo muttered, as he sniffed the air. “It’s dark in there. Must be abandoned.”</p>
<p>“Great! Let’s go and check it!” Sasuke said, sounding not angry by Juugo’s observations, but almost proud. “Juugo, you first! Just – drop Suigetsu!”</p>
<p>“‘Kay,” Juugo rumbled as he did just that. Then, unencumbered by Suigetsu – not that you could tell – he walked to the home and looked inside. Carefully, though since it was him, this was hard to tell.</p>
<p>For several moments the other three, (including Suigetsu, probably), just stood there, ignoring the deepening dark, while Juugo checked it out, and made some sort of a conclusion. (Juugo was a slow thinker, truth be told). </p>
<p>“…It’s clear,” he finally rumbled, as he withdrew from the house slash building. “It’s empty too. I think it might be a part-way station for other shinobi though – it looks clean, even if there isn’t any furniture.”</p>
<p>“Oh?” Sasuke frowned, and walked there himself. Karin accompanied him, and they dragged Suigetsu along for the ride – or tried to: Suigetsu turned himself into a water puddle and refused to go.</p>
<p>“You know,” Sasuke spoke, even as he did not break stride, “the mosquitoes are coming after the sunset, and you know what they do to strange water puddles? They mate over them and lay their eggs in them. Want to be a host for a mosquito swarm? Be my guest-“</p>
<p>Suigetsu reluctantly took on a human form and followed them into the house.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>/ / /</p>
</div>Inside was exactly what Juugo described – a single empty room…literally empty, with a hearth in the middle of it. There were several bundles of fuel laid off to one side – or one wall, a mixture of dry sticks and dry hay.<p>“Karin-sama, if you please,” Sasuke said wryly; Karin flushed and finally got off his back. She did step onto Suigetsu’s feet, but that did not count, (with Juugo, it was more tricky, period). And as Suigetsu swore, Sasuke walked over, picked up a couple of bundles, put them into the hearth, paused, broke them up, rearranging the dry sticks and the hay, and then lit it all up with one of his fire jutsus. “What are you waiting for, people?” he asked the other three. “Unpack your bedrolls and all! Do I need to invite you-?”</p>
<p>There was a bit of an embarrassed pause, (cough, Orochimaru-sensei never did anything like that), followed by a bit of embarrassing chaos, as the other three followed Sasuke’s advice, and it went down relatively smoothly, though Suigetsu got trampled by Juugo a bit – probably by accident, of course… However it got resolved quite smoothly, simply because with Suigetsu trampled there were fewer people to be confused and rushed – and Sasuke, of course, busied himself with preparing the supper, a hearty double serving of ramen for everyone, with tomatoes, of course, because Sasuke never gave up tomatoes if he could help it. </p>
<p>“…This is nice,” Juugo commented, as he wolfed down his share, (Suigetsu took his time, because of course he did), and Karin would rather huddle with ‘Sasuke-kun’ instead of just eating. “So, what is this place?”</p>
<p>“Looks like some night-timed shelter for- anyone, really,” Sasuke muttered, albeit more thoughtfully than what he said. “We’ll probably have to replenish supplies tomorrow morning-“</p>
<p>“Why? In case this place belongs to the yama-uba and she’ll eat us otherwise?” Suigetsu snapped.</p>
<p>There was a pause broken by no one as everyone became aware that it was night now, and a rather cold one, and a rather dark one, and-</p>
<p>“Right. We’ll replenish the supplies tomorrow,” Suigetsu muttered, (frankly, after Orochimaru’s brand of mentoring, a mountain witch didn’t sound too out there, eh?). “Now-“</p>
<p>A scorpion fell from the ceiling of their shelter; Suigetsu shrieked really loudly and smote it with one of his jutsus. </p>
<p>“And on this note, let’s put the garbage away and go to sleep,” Sasuke said dryly.</p>
<p>“Good idea,” Suigetsu nodded nervously, when another scorpion fell onto him; this time, Suigetsu shrieked even louder, turning into a puddle of water, and flowed to the shelter’s doorway, where he pooled. Into a puddle, literally speaking. </p>
<p>The others looked at him settle in into his inorganic state, (there are some things that are constant even in the Elemental lands, including the fact that humans – even shinobi – are organic, while water isn’t, not really), and turned towards their small pile of supper leftovers and garbage. This time, there were no scorpions, just something black and hairy and huge-</p>
<p>Okay, it was not truly ‘huge’, more like mouse-sized, but with excessively many legs to be a mouse and a body that just was not mammalian, period. </p>
<p>“It’s a sun spider,” Sasuke sighed. “Juugo, get into your bedroll, I’ll take care of it!”</p>
<p>“Thanks, Sasuke-sama!” Juugo spoke with evident relief as he crawled into his sleeping bag and hid in it entirely, even though he was a rather big man, what with the kekkai genkai and all. </p>
<p>“Sasuke-kun,” Karin said delicately, (the sun spider has rather ruined the mood), “I’m thinking-“</p>
<p>“So am I,” Sasuke nodded in agreement. “Karin-sama, you want have a summoning contract?”</p>
<p>“I’m a medic-nin, not much of a fighter,” Karin blinked as she argued, though mostly for the sake of doing it properly. “I doubt that a summons would be a good idea for me-“</p>
<p>“I disagree,” Sasuke said firmly, as the two of them eyed, (Juugo was still cowling and as such he did not count), the first mosquitoes that were investigating the water puddle that Suigetsu be-came and remained. “I think that I know just the perfect summons for a medic nuke-nin like you!”</p>
<p>“Really?” Karin blinked. “How is that going to go?”</p>
<p>“Watch this,” Sasuke nodded as he unrolled a not-quite-filled contract scroll and deftly caught one of the mosquitoes. “And pay attention, this is going to be important and intense-!”</p>
<p>It certainly was, for once the mosquito made a contact with the contract scroll and Sasuke made some sort of seal sequence, there was a burst of smoke, and a much bigger mosquito appeared before the two of them, (Suigetsu was still in his puddle form and didn’t count, probably, cough).</p>
<p>“Who dares to summon the great Ka, lord of Mosquitoes?” the giant-sized vermin buzzed.</p>
<p>“That would be us, your lordship,” Sasuke said politely, as he and Karin kowtowed to the latter, though not too submissively – you never knew with chief summons. “My name is Sasuke Uchiha-“</p>
<p>“I know you – you got a contract with Manda,” Ka buzzed with something that sounded almost like disappointment. “What business-?”</p>
<p>“This is Karin,” Sasuke continued smoothly, “she would like to enter a contract with your people instead-“</p>
<p>“And who would back her up? You alone do not count-“</p>
<p>“There’s also me,” someone else hissed, and a small-sized snake crawled up Sasuke and Karin. “Hello, Ka.”</p>
<p>“Hello, Mondo,” the giant mosquito buzzed in a much more friendlier tone. “You’re also in favor of it?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” the snake hissed with, well, a hissing accent. “How you’ve been?”</p>
<p>“Good. You? Still in your cousin’s shadow?”</p>
<p>“Manda’s time will come,” the snake hissed dismissively. “Now, shall we proceed?”</p>
<p>There was the beginning of a pause, but- “Yes,” Karin squeaked, and so everyone got over it quickly.</p>
<p>And a new contract was written-up.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>/ / /</p>
</div>…And so it was, though when the next morning Juugo finally climbed out of his sleeping bag, everything seemed to be in order, though both Sasuke and Karin seemed to be more dishevelled than usual, but it was Sasuke and Karin, so it was okay. “There were no scorpions? No sun spiders?” he asked nervously them instead.<p>“Of course not, my summons have kept them all away,” Sasuke said flatly.</p>
<p>“…What summons?” Juugo blinked.</p>
<p>Instead of verbally replying, Sasuke pointed…to a rather small snake that was coiled next to Juugo’s sleeping bag.</p>
<p>Juugo blinked. “Oh. Okay. So, shall we go now to the Kage conference?”</p>
<p>“Good idea,” Suigetsu piped-up from his position. “I got the replacement fuel bundles too, already!”</p>
<p>Juugo looked at Suigetsu, then at the bundles, and then at Sasuke. “What did you do?” he paused, and amended: “What did the two of you do?”</p>
<p>Karin just smiled, very, very happily, and Juugo did not push it. He drew his own conclusions. They were probably wrong too, but Karin, for once, did not care.</p>
<p>End.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yama-uba is a mountain witch in the Japanese folklore.</p>
<p>Ka means mosquito in Japanese. (Hey, how is this different from Hebi?)</p>
<p>Sun spider is another name for the camel spider or the solifugid, and they aren't really dangerous to humans.</p>
<p>This story was inspired by a fic that I've read long ago, where Sakura formed a relationship with Deidara after being kidnapped by the Akatsuki, and Sasuke was with Karin instead. Here's my take on it - sort of.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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